Ike Deal Climbing the Hully Gully, Ice Climbing in Colorado

The following is a TRUE STORY…and fun to recant, but it breaks from the rule that only 10% has to be true because ALL of this happened.  I added some movie-plot details because that’s how I like to run it through in my head!  This is a PhotoBlog, afterall!  The pictures were all taken at the scene.

[Opening caption] “You did tie the ropes together, right?”

[Closeup shot following a helmet rolling down a snowy path towards oblivion] There was an awkward sound of silence when I noticed my helmet just pitched over the edge, carelessly left unattached to my pack and the lightest nudge from my boot sent it bobbling down a path and over the edge of the ice column we just climbed.  My mind, awash in both trepidation and chagrin, foolishly tried to come up with some way to save face despite knowing my pride left with the helmet. And then you hear the impact, then another, and another as if the helmet is trying to escape ground zero, the site of the inevitable verbal beat-down that is only moments away.

[Wide shot of the entire height of the Hully Gully from across the valley] It was my introduction to ice climbing with the legendary Ike Deal; soldier, outdoorsman, gear hog of Colorado Springs, up the Hully Gully, although the helmet was mine.  The Hully Gully is a 110-foot, two pitch ice waterfall accessed off of Old Stage Road, about two miles from Colorado Springs and in the South Cheyenne Canyon.  Only the footprints of those who went before us marked the trail down from Old Stage Road to the top of the ice climb.  It used to be private property but in 2005 the Colorado Springs Park & Rec Department was able to secure an easement from the Hills, who own Seven Falls, allowing ice climbers access to Hully Gully from the Old Stage Road. This easement does not include Ramona Falls, which is still off-limits and meant that the only way to retrieve the helmet was to descend the Hully Gully (again).

[Tight shot on Ike, pan over to Tim] The look on Ike’s face was a mix of  annoyance and debility as he had already climbed the upper pitch twice that morning and wasn’t planning a third.  Seemed appropriate at that point, endeared to the helmet as I was because my wife gave it to me, to withhold that it was second hand, costing only a few dollars.  My penance  would have kept us out there longer than we had time for (due to my inexperience) so it was Ike who hastily clambered down the pitch, trusting my emerging belay skills to manage his descent.

[Zoom from top of pitch down to bottom] We misjudged the final resting spot of the helmet. Ike yelled up to me as I was looking down on him…looking down on the helmet.  We simply didn’t have enough rope to make it down to the bottom of the first pitch to the helmet so Ike returned empty handed, hatching a plan to come back the following week with two ropes to make it all the way to the bottom.  The helmet would have to wait.

[Fade to black, reopen to shot following two men down a trail] The following week we returned and a rescue mission-oriented Ike (again) descended the upper part of the Hully Gully, this time with a second rope over his shoulder.  In about 30 minutes he and attached the two lines, descended the first pitch to the bottom, retrieved the helmet, and climbed back top of the gully, all smiles that we had successfully completed the mission and the helmet was safe.

[Tight shot of the helmet tied to a tree, follow focus to Ike pulling up a rope] It was during the retrieval of the ropes that we noticed that the rope(s) seemed to feel rather light and realized that only one rope was coming up…the other had not been re-tied and lie at the bottom looking up at us.  Not pointing any fingers here (point…point….)

[Tight shot of smirk on Tim’s face] Personally, it felt good to see it there.  Sure, I made a bone-head maneuver losing my helmet in the first place…but this!?  Oh, this was just the bandage my wounded pride needed and finally I could look Ike in the eye and say, “What a dumba$$”.  The rope, approximately 100x the cost of my helmet, carried a significantly higher expediency for its retrieval and now it was time to play Army. There would be no more climbing back up the gully that day.  “Ike…I’ll be at the extraction point in 45 minutes.  You better be there.  If not, I’ll hang out until you show up.”

[Wide shot of Ike moving downhill through forest, silently, and with stealthy moves, eyes darting] Years of training had prepared Ike for this mission…moving about 200 meters through private property to his extraction point with the glide of Sacajawea!

Ike Deal Climbing the Hully Gully, Ice Climbing in Colorado

[Cut to exterior shot of a blue suburban speeding to a stop on a mountain road] The door to the truck opened long before the wheels slowed down enough for Ike to jump in.  Through some coordinated efforts, Ike was waiting face down in a ditch just on the outskirts of the private property around Seven Falls, the rope coiled over his shoulder, waiting patiently.   Although jumping in through an open window would have made great cinema, Ike held on to the open door and slumped into the seat as I scanned the mirrors for anyone who may have seen us exiting the park.
[Fade on road as truck dust settles]

After seeing so much lately through a lens and building some skills in the field of photo journalism, my mind seems to recall moments like these as I described above…as if I was recreating the scenes for filming.  If I was to re-live them, how would I record them…where are the moments worth capturing and which ones would convey the emotion of the moment?

And I don’t even know where that helmet is now.

Thanks, Ike, for this!

Undaunted and challenged to create more of a mood or a style to accompany a certain technical proficiency, I set out today to re-shoot some of the same angles but with a greater emphasis on  using more of the in-scene elements.  I didn’t necessarily want to silhouette the rider because he’s still the subject of the image and there are certain details I wanted to remain in the image, but I knew the direct sunlight had the potential throw-off the exposure settings.  The camera was set to “burst” in order to capture a series of shots as the rider launched off the berm, crossing the line to the sun and this one happened to record just as the rider emerged from blocking the sun.

Ahh, the quest to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment, on the right settings, with the right elements, in the right locations, on days with friendly weather and the time to go back if necessary.  Whew……  If you see a photograph you like and determine in your mind that the photographer “got lucky” and snapped a remarkable shot, think otherwise.  There are very few get lucky moments.

Side note…must confess I photoshopped this a little in order to bring out more detail in the rider.  Don’t hate.

For me, if I look through the photos in our collection, I know which ones she took and which ones I took…each has our thumbprints on them (har..har) meaning our style comes out…it’s like I am happy if the instrument is tuned and she wants it to make great music.  The art, of course, is the ability to combine both of these.  It wasn’t until I got home and looked at the images and sort of slumped a bit when I saw what Susanna had taken. For this particular image, the exposure was set to the clear blue sky and the addition of the direct sunlight and biker created this silhouetted-look with the punch of the bright sunlight.  Far more stylistic, forgoing of things like balancing the histogram!

There is a lot to learn (obviously!) about combining my love for the technical side of imagery with the stylistic side of combining a variety elements within a scene to bring forth a mood. Still searching for that “eye” for pulling all of this together…

Cheers, All!!

]]> http://capturegravity.com/wordpress/2011/11/26/get-with-the-party/feed/ 0 http://capturegravity.com/wordpress/2011/11/23/timing-is-everything/ http://capturegravity.com/wordpress/2011/11/23/timing-is-everything/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:41:30 +0000 Tim http://capturegravity.com/wordpress/?p=52 As a former Army-guy, one of my favorite activities was to go to the range and fire my weapon…combining aim, breath control, trigger squeeze, and timing in order to hit objects I could barely see for the brief amount of time thy were up.  Those same elements now combine to help me capture those split-second moments for an athlete when they reach that dramatic moment in there routine that expresses their skills and daring.

I recently setup the strobes to capture young cheerleaders at a competition and challenged them do their best stunt for the camera.  To capture this image I had the performer face directly into the primary strobe, set 45 degrees on the left of my position.  A secondary strobe was set to the right and about 10 feet in the air in order to light the subject from above as they jumped.  I also removed the camera from the tripod in order to be more flexible in framing the shot.

AIM…having the camera off the tripos was great for framing but requires some practice getting the proper aim.  The movement is dynamic and each jump is slightly different.  To offset this a little I tried to get as close as possible with the shortest focal length and still give me room in the frame to be off a little, fixing the framing in post production.

BREATH CONTROL…really this is just having YOU amped-up and ready to shoot, totally focused on the subject and every sense poised to react when you need to.

TRIGGER SQUEEZE…since the camera is off the tripod your movement combined with the movement of the subject creates the potential for blurry images.  I recommend using the strap wrapped around your arm or bracing your elbows, forearms, or even your body against a support structure to limit any movement of the camera.

TIMING…as the subject of this article, IS EVERYTHING.  For this I had the subject give me a countdown and conduct a few practice jumps in order for me to understand the tempo of the maneuver.  As the subject counted, that breath control came into play and mentally had to anticipate the action in order to hit the mark.  To make things just a little more complicated, the trigger responds just a split second after you want it to so I had the button depressed half-way (also sets the focus ahead of time) during the count and fully depressed the button just a fraction of a second before the height of the stunt.

The shutter speed was set at 1/320, above the recommended 1/250 for strobe photography.  For me it was worth losing some of the bottom of the image (due to the curtain-synch on the camera) in order to get a sharper image.  Oddly, it didn’t affect the image at all.  Who knew!?

And yes, you get that same rush when you get a decent shot combining all the elements mentioned above as you do when you see your target go down on the range, smell the powder and feel the concussion of the rifle.